Biden admin calls transgender athletes in school sports "complicated"
Biden admin calls transgender athletes in school sports "complicated"
"It is truly a complicated issue, with a wide range of views, truly a wide range of views," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.
"It is a complicated issue. It is truly a complicated issue, with a wide range of views, truly a wide range of views," Jean-Pierre said. "There is no 'yes or no' answer to this, it is complicated. There is a rule that the Department of Education [DOE] has put forward, and we're going to let that process move forward, and again, we want to make sure that while we establish guardrails with this rule, we also prevent discrimination, as well, against transgender kids. But again, a complicated issue with a wide range of views, and we respect that."
"Absolutely no reason for the Biden admin to do this," New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "It is indefensible and embarrassing. The admin can still walk this back, and they should. It's a disgrace."
"Honestly, this move by Biden to push a rule on trans kids in sports is not only a backwards betrayal, it [forces] us to have to spend our time dealing with god d*** sports instead of criminal bans on our healthcare," Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and LGBTQ+ advocate, wrote. "He could have just done nothing. This is legitimizing transphobia."
The mOsT PrOgReSsIvE Administration in History™ 
"A complicated issue with a wide range of views, and we respect that" Fuck off out of here with that "centrist" nonsense. There's nothing complicated about it, and it's not an issue unless you want to turn it into one and want to appeal to people's emotions like Republicans are doing. It was only a matter of time before they'd start throwing trans people under the bus. I guess with the coming elections it's as good a time as ever.
Trans people matter, sports don't.
Just in case anyone from other instances are stopping by, this is how liberal democracy leads to fascism. You have a right wing party that wants to criminalize being trans while tacitly supporting physical violence and extermination. The only viable opposition party can't even use decisive language about the validity and existence of trans people among cis people. Because it might hurt their polling.
Now the strongest, political position from the "left" is "it's complicated." So when the right starts being very clear about violence and carrying it out through official state entities, the new left position will be even more to the right. Because they already gave up on "Trans people should participate in the things cis people do." So it's not even about trans people living a normal life. Historically, by the time we get there, it doesn't matter what the left position is anymore. Because the right has taken over and are putting people in camps.
This is why it's so very annoying to hear about harm reduction and voting the lesser evil. That's not how it works. One hand washes the other. The lesser evil just leads to greater evil getting strong anyways. It doesn't stop it or bide you time. The only lesser evil is violent revolution, which is only evil if you don't understand what's at stake here.
I'm one of those people from other instances stopping by that hasn't thought a lot about this issue.
It's a shame that US politics seems to be so boolean. As in, the only acceptable position for a political party is the polar opposite of their opposition.
What if an issue is genuinely complicated and cannot be resolved by a three word statement of position? Can there be no discussion around that?
What if an issue is genuinely complicated and cannot be resolved by a three word statement of position? Can there be no discussion around that?
That's fine if it's an issue that is worthy of debate.
We're talking here specifically about the rights and survival of human beings, and in that kind of case, no. There is no room for debate. There is no complexity. You either support people's right to live, or you don't. There fundamentally cannot be a grey area here; any response that includes the words "yes, but" automatically cedes ground to fascists.
This sports transphobia is mostly directed at trans girls/femme/women, right?
Are they doing this shit to AFAB people in men's sports?
Regardless all this discourse is wrapped up in misogyny too, implying that people AFAB are always going to be worse at sports.
And it doesn't take into account the general unfairness in sports. Some people are born into wealthy families who can afford to feed their kids, get them healthcare, and train them into sports.
It's all the talking points about affirmative action, just in a different font.
Are they doing this shit to AFAB people in men's sports?
chess is lmao
yes. You will notice though that the primary direction of transphobic rhetoric is aimed at trans women and not trans men. this is a result of misogyny at its core. this is part of the phenomenon of transmisogyny, the intersection of misogyny and transphobia
It is also about patriarchy in that it is seen as a problem for a man to give up his patriarchal benefits, while it is seen as a virtue for women to seek patriarchal benefits. Same reason that gay men always suffered more gay hate than lesbians, the appearance of taking on the "feminine" role is viewed as a threat to patriarchy.
Yes, trans men are being forced to compete against women against their will. They never cared about fairness, it's entirely about hurting trans people.
Yeah max beggs in Texas. Trans guy wrestler who absolutely dominated because transphobic Texas politicians made him compete vs women.
Kids can be up to a year older than their classmates due to the way kindergarten start date cutoffs work. These kids who arbitrarily end up older tend to outperform their peers, because a 7.9 year old is stronger and faster than a 7 year old. This is a real difference - the NHL did a study on this and found that their players disproportionately have early-year birthdays due to how this effect lines up with hockey camps.
Do you care? Of course not, nobody cares about the competitive fairness of kids' sports, the point is just to get them to exercise and have a hobby. We can verify that nobody takes this seriously by looking at high school sports, where suddenly a four year age gap is acceptable.
Okay, so why does this suddenly matter when it's what team a trans kid should be on?
Clearly we need to ban all sports until we can figure out and resolve what the fuck is wrong with Americans.
What if we need to ban all Amerikans until we know what the fuck is wrong with sports?
This also works
But again, a complicated issue with a wide range of views, and we respect that.
You don't have to though.
Give blockers to all the kids so they have equal playing field
Wow! I love having my continued existence being labelled “complicated” by people in high elected offices.
Okay, so democrats may not be harm reduction, but they'll... checks notes ...look the other way as others cause harm?
Ah the abortion playbook
I remember reading that when Utah did their ban on trans athletes in school sports, there was exactly one trans girl playing in a girls' sport in the whole state. Exactly one. Statewide legislature passing laws focused on one person, a child.
All this scrutiny and transphobia is directed at literal children, many of whom might be the only trans athlete out of millions. Transphobia is such a disgusting thing to me, not only because of the chauvinism and bigotry, but because it's just so senseless. Trans people are already rare enough as it is and also one of the most vulnerable populations in regards to poverty, assault, unemployment, etc. I've seen some statistics saying that only around 1,000 people in America initiate HRT per year. That should give an idea of just how rare and vulnerable trans people are. And now there's a senseless cultural panic just to whip up a few more eyeballs on the spectacle?
Death to America
Libs get the wall too.
"It is a complicated issue. It is truly a complicated issue, with a wide range of views, truly a wide range of views… There is no 'yes or no' answer to this, it is complicated.”
I read this in Stephen Merchant’s voice
do not cede ground to the right. for god's sakes, do not cede ground to the right.
No, its really not.What's the rule though?
That transgender people aren't allowed to play ... well.. pretty much any sports with their non-trans peers.
I have a question that comes from being uneducated on the matter, and I sincerely want to be. Trans woman athlete, amab, didn't begin her transition yet. First, is it something that happens a lot, and secondly, how is allowing her to compete in female sports different from eliminating the distinction between male and female in competition?
One thing that often gets uncritically accepted is that school sports are about competition. Remember: these are children we're talking about here. Kids play sports for community, to have fun and be part of a team.
All this fearmongering about potential advantages and statistical differences in anatomy is missing the forest for the trees. These laws are about discriminating against trans people, not about athletic fairness.
Also yeah boy/girl segregation in sports isn't scientific and largely exists for misogyny reasons (either to give women a space to compete away from men or to remove women from competition because men got butthurt about losing to them)
adding this to the long list of reasons im not voting for biden again when libs ask. my go-to is always “that fucker still owes me $600!”
So, you think voting for a Republican or not voting is going to get the job done?
Voting for Democrats means you are actually voting for Republicans because Democrats do whatever Republicans want, serve the same class, and are themselves Republicans. So not voting is actually harm reduction. Voting just helps Republicans.
Out of curiosity, if someone is engaging in good faith conversation how likely are they to be banned here on hexbearpig?
If it's sincere good faith, unlikely that banning will be involved